Biscuit porcelain

Biscuit porcelain, bisque porcelain or bisque is unglazed, white porcelain treated as a final product,^[1][2] with a matte appearance and texture to the touch. It has been widely used in European pottery, mainly for sculptural and decorative objects that are not tableware and so do not need a glaze for protection.

The term "biscuit" refers to any type of fired but unglazed pottery in the course of manufacture, but only in porcelain is biscuit or bisque a term for a final product. Unglazed earthenware as a final product is often called terracotta, and in stoneware equivalent unglazed wares (such as jasperware) are often called "dry-bodied". Many types of pottery, including most porcelain wares, have a glaze applied, either before a single firing, or at the biscuit stage, with a further firing.

Small figurines and other decorative pieces have often been made in biscuit, as well as larger portrait busts and other sculptures; the appearance of biscuit is very similar to that of carved and smoothed marble, the traditional prestige material for sculpture in the West. It is hardly used in Chinese porcelain or that of other East Asian countries, but in Europe became very popular for figures in the second half of the 18th century, as Neoclassicism dominated contemporary styles. It was first used at Vincennes porcelain in 1751 by Jean-Jacques Bachelier.^[3]

Biscuit figures have to be free from the common small imperfections that a glaze and painted decoration could cover up, and were therefore usually more expensive than glazed ones. They are also more difficult to keep clean.

A popular use for biscuit porcelain was the manufacture of bisque dolls in the 19th century, where the porcelain was typically tinted or painted in flesh tones. In the doll world, "bisque" is usually the term used, rather than "biscuit".^[4] Parian ware is a 19th-century type of biscuit. Lithophanes were normally made with biscuit.